that it is difficult to find so isolated a setting that someone has not been killed only to rise as a wraith. The areasurrounding <strong>Greyhawk</strong> is no different. Many wraiths are so well known to haunt certain areas, usually avoi<strong>de</strong>d, thatthey have been given nicknames by the villagers living in those areas.Of late, the Old Bens and Spindly Shanks have been in something <strong>of</strong> an uproar. Sightings have becomeincreasingly common but oddly no attacks have been reported, neither has anyone much gone missing. Clericalattempts to turn the irate spirits have been marked by a seeming willingness on the part <strong>of</strong> the wraith to be turned tostand still for it. In fact, the wraiths seem calmed by the presence <strong>of</strong> the clerics. Turning has proven easy. Too easysome would say.QSamantha
EHLONNIC MYSTERY CULTSBy Chaos28Subj: Ehlonnic Mystery CultsFrom: Chaos28Date: 95-09-30 14:46:34 ESTWhat follows is from my own campaign, and is not presented as fact (even to my own players), but rather asone avenue for adding history and <strong>de</strong>pth beyond what is presented in the boxworlds and supplements.A note <strong>of</strong> explanation: I have been a fan <strong>of</strong> Robert Graves' mythography since I first picked up his books,and I have always thought that his approach ma<strong>de</strong> for won<strong>de</strong>rful material for gaming. The following accounts andi<strong>de</strong>as liberally borrow from Graves' style. I know that the style is much more in keeping with mo<strong>de</strong>rn mythographythan with medieval scholarship, but I <strong>de</strong>ci<strong>de</strong>d to use it anyway, since it is also more useful to me.Here we go...PrehistoryAt one time in the dim past, there was no true Oeridian pantheon as we now know it. Instead, most <strong>of</strong> thetribes worshipped some incarnation <strong>of</strong> a Universal God<strong>de</strong>ss who created everything via parthenogenesis or sheerforce <strong>of</strong> will. According to some scholars, the neighboring tribes <strong>of</strong> the Baklunish also recognized this god<strong>de</strong>ssfigure, and adapted her Oeridian name, Ashtis, to their own language as Istus. During this time, most <strong>of</strong> the tribes <strong>of</strong>the Oeridians were matriarchal and matrilineal. There exists no evi<strong>de</strong>nce that fatherhood was honored, and in fact, noevi<strong>de</strong>nce that people fully un<strong>de</strong>rstood the role <strong>of</strong> the father in procreation. The chief beliefs were that Ashtis createdchildren either through the same mechanism by which she gave inspiration and insight, or by setting the souls <strong>of</strong>children adrift on the winds. Women who wished to avoid pregnancy kept themselves indoors, out <strong>of</strong> the wind, andthis seemed to work. Men in these tribes held subordinate but important positions and buil<strong>de</strong>rs and even hunters.Over time, there emerged certain patriarchal but still matrilineal cults which sought to divi<strong>de</strong> the figure <strong>of</strong>Ashtis into different beings, many or most <strong>of</strong> them male. The cults <strong>of</strong> Zilchus, Procan, and Velnius Skyfather werechief among these cults. Velnius' cult was the most belligerent <strong>of</strong> the three patriarchal cults, but it was the lessbellicose cult <strong>of</strong> Zilchus which was most effective in spreading its influence in the matriarchal societies <strong>of</strong> the time.Zilchus' priests ten<strong>de</strong>d to work within the existing structures, trading i<strong>de</strong>as and spreading their faith by integratingwith the populace and slowly introducing their faith as though it had always been a part <strong>of</strong> the existing beliefstructure. It is from the cults <strong>of</strong> Zilchus, by the way, that we get the practice <strong>of</strong> coining precious metals for exchange,although the cults <strong>of</strong> Ashtis had long been using gold in barter and for adornment.It is here that our un<strong>de</strong>rstanding <strong>of</strong> the prehistoric emergence <strong>of</strong> the Oeridian faith becomes clou<strong>de</strong>d. Somemaintain that there was a time <strong>of</strong> great wars, during which the cults fought for primacy across the land. Otherssuggest that the introduction <strong>of</strong> Zilchite tra<strong>de</strong> practices caused an indolence in the land, as people turned from artand knowledge toward aqcuisitiveness and tra<strong>de</strong>. This latter course seems doubtful, however, given the Zilchitepractice <strong>of</strong> keeping fulsome records on the tiniest <strong>de</strong>tails. At any rate, we refer to this obscure period for ourpurposes as the Dark Time.At some point during this Dark Time, most scholars agree that the Oeridian people shifted from a matriarchalto a patriarchal form <strong>of</strong> government. While there exists no account to suggest that this change was violent or abrupt,it did leave its mark on the Oeridian faiths. It was, in fact, around this time that the Ehlonnic mystery cults emerged,or at least became known, for it is in the Mount Theresgis Tablet that we first note references to the oraculardivination which has become associated with mystery cults even to this day. The tablet provi<strong>de</strong>s a clear account <strong>of</strong>an Ehlonnic ritual in progress (and from this comes the conclusion that the historian <strong>of</strong> the Theresgis tablets wasfemale). We are shown the sacrifice <strong>of</strong> the goat, the consuming <strong>of</strong> the pine nut, the display <strong>of</strong> the bough, and theetching <strong>of</strong> the circles. What the tablet's author does not tell us, however, is why these practices were so obscure andmystical.There may well have been many more mystery cults than have survived to this day, but only a handful stillremain to us, including the cults <strong>of</strong> the Four Winds (Altroa, Wenta, Telchur, and Sotillion) and the mother-cult <strong>of</strong>Ehlonna. All practice oracular divination and pass on knowledge and the mysteries via oral tradition, quite apart fromthe cult <strong>of</strong> Zilchus, for instance, which insists upon the written word as the purest form <strong>of</strong> communication.Of the mystery cults, only Telchur's is patriarchal, although evi<strong>de</strong>nce exists to suggest that this was notalways the case. The wearing <strong>of</strong> full beards by Telchite priests is a relatively new innovation, less than a century old,and the animal skins donned by the oracle are similarily more in keeping with the theory that the Telchites mixed withBaklunish tribesmen and the Chakyiks and adopted some <strong>of</strong> their practices. In fact, one <strong>of</strong> the most striking peices <strong>of</strong>evi<strong>de</strong>nce to support the matriarchal origins <strong>of</strong> the Telchite cults comes down in a report <strong>de</strong>livered to Dey Hasm theUnvanquishable by one <strong>of</strong> his scouts, wherein the scout reports his encounter with a Telchite cult. The author <strong>of</strong>
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